[Content Note: There is some flickery editing in this video.]
Wet Wet Wet: "Love Is All Around"
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
Wet Wet Wet: "Love Is All Around"
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Tweet of the Day
That feeling when you win three straight debates. #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/KlH090F57W
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 20, 2016
[Image in tweet pictures Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton giving each other a big squeezy hug immediately after last night's debate; Chelsea is smiling broadly.]
The Status Quo
Last night, following the debate, I watched a lot of supercool punditry, but this moment really stood out to me. It wasn't strictly the worst moment, and, Jake Tapper said a lot of great things last night, but.
CNN's Jake Tapper: Look, this is an election where many people think it's a change election. President Obama still has very high approval ratings, but people don't like the direction of the country right now. And usually after eight years of one party in power, the White House switches. So, in many ways, this has been Donald Trump's to lose. He's the Republican nominee, coming in; he, without question, represents change. And it's hard to imagine how Hillary Clinton represents anything beyond Washington and power in Washington and, dare I say, status quo.Y'all. There has never been a woman president in the history of the nation. 227 years. Not a single woman. But it's hard for Tapper to imagine how Clinton represents anything but the status quo. I mean.
I imagine his response would be to say he's only talking about her politics (as though erasure of her womanhood isn't a political issue in and of itself), but even that isn't accurate. Clinton is running on the most progressive Democratic platform in history. Which is a change in the status quo.
And I don't say that as a slam on President Obama! To the contrary, his presidency has facilitated and made possible much of the progress we see in the current platform. And even he has noted that Clinton will build on his legacy. Will progress, as progressives do.
The point is that she's not running on maintaining the status quo, but on building on the progress Obama has started.
No matter how you look at it, this contention is crap. But it's especially crap because it totally disappears and treats as utterly irrelevant the potential of a historic presidency, which significantly upends the "status quo" for women.
And, you know, that matters.
Tapper, although I know a lot of people disagree with me, tends to be among my favorite pundits. I generally think he does a great and fair job. So I'm not singling him out because he's bad: To the contrary, I'm highlighting this because I have a lot of respect for him.
Even the best of pundits are ignoring the historical significance of Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and it hurts my heart.
Presidential Debate #3 Wrap-Up
In the same #debate Trump said both of these things:
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2016
"Nobody respects women more than I do."
"Such a nasty woman."
Welp. That was...something.
As always, I live-tweeted the debate, and I have Storified those tweets for anyone who would like to see them.
And I have a piece at Shareblue on the debate: "Trump's America: Bad hombres and nasty women."
I don't know what could better sum up the final debate than the juxtaposition of Hillary Clinton's strongly defending reproductive choice and Donald Trump's leaning down into the microphone to sneer menacingly: "Such a nasty woman."
By any reasonable measure, he lost this debate. Just like he lost the first two.
Welp, that's three debates and three embarrassing losses for Trump. Three strikes and you're out, pal!
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 20, 2016
I'll say once again: Congratulations, Hillary Clinton. You are carrying a lot on your shoulders; being the first woman in the nation's history in this position, being the standard bearer for women and the envoy of millions of people's hopes to stop Trump. That is a hell of a lot of pressure, and, as always, you rose you to the occasion. Wow. And thank you.
Open Thread: Presidential Debate #3
Well, tonight is the night! The third and final presidential debate between the most qualified presidential candidate in the nation's history and the most unqualified presidential candidate in the nation's history. A history-making candidate and a legendary bigot. The first woman to inhabit this space and the galaxy's biggest misogynist.
IT REMAINS A REAL TOSS-UP!
Let's see if Donald Trump can try to keep his predatory garbage behavior under wraps for a whole NINETY MINUTES and not stalk Hillary Clinton all over the stage like a weirdo creeper. It should be easier for him now that he'll be behind a podium again, to which I can only assume Kellyanne Conway chains him before the debate, just to be sure.
Anyway! Here's an open thread to discuss the debate—before, during, and after. I'll just be over here, biting my nails.
The Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by pantsuits.
Recommended Reading:
Josh: [Content Note: Rape culture] Trump and the Dangerous Myth of Good and Bad Men
Sudip: [CN: Racism; intimidation] Five Lessons I Learned While Protesting a Trump Rally
Monica: [CN: Racism] Naw GOP, This Election Isn't 'Rigged'
Fannie: [CN: Bigotry] The Cheese Stands Alone?
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred] Some Seriously WTF? Fashion Advice
Maddie: Pluto's Skies Look More Earth-Like Than We Imagined
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
Discussion Thread: What I've Learned About Hillary
There are so, so, sooooo many misconceptions about Hillary Clinton out there. So many smears, mischaracterizations, and outright lies―many of them dating back decades.
What were the things you thought were true about Hillary until you learned otherwise? What are the things you've learned about her career that you never knew until this election cycle?
I've written about this a bit before, regarding the process by which I came to be a Hillary supporter. There are a lot of things about her I didn't know, and a lot of things said about her that I didn't realize were untrue.
And I'm still learning things: I will never stop being amazed that I didn't learn until earlier this year about her role in the Irish peace process.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
This is an excellent piece by Alison Rose, who has long been a Shaker and a guest writer here and is now my colleague at Shareblue yay! "2016 offers a stark choice for LGBTQ voters." Go read it!
In related news: "60 Cities Earn Perfect LGBTQ Protections Survey Score (But 8 Score Zero)." BOO THOSE EIGHT CITIES! BOOOOOO!
Love this piece by Ashley Weatherford: "Hillary Clinton's Campaign Has More Black Women Than Any Presidential Campaign in History." P.S. I adore Zerlina Maxwell. She is amazing.
The New York Times reports that 70 Nobel Laureates have endorsed Hillary Clinton. Whoa!
[Content Note: War on agency; racism] THIS OLD CHESTNUT: "Attorneys for the state of Kansas cited the infamous Dred Scott decision in a court filing this week in support of their argument that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. The state's filing, which was submitted to the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, was a response to an amicus brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in a case that will determine whether or not the Kansas Constitution guarantees a right to abortion under its equal rights provision." Fuck.
[CN: War on agency] Meanwhile, Sharona Coutts reports at Rewire on "Texas' Publicly Funded Fake Abortion Clinics: Under its 'Alternatives to Abortion' program, the state gave more than $2 million in 2015 to these fake clinics. This year, the amount is likely to be significantly higher, given that the program's budget has doubled." Double fuck.
Aziz Ansari really wants you to vote, okay? Sheesh!
Donald Trump is bringing President Obama's half-brother Malik Obama to the debate as his guest. Is he aware that he's not running against Barack Obama? Or Bill Clinton? Someone tell Donald Trump he's running against Hillary Clinton.
[CN: Sexual assault; video autoplays at link] Planned Parenthood has a powerful new video in which survivors tell their stories and pledge to help defeat Trump.
"Okapi Calf Arrives in Time for World Okapi Day." Awwwwwww!
What have you been reading?
"Frankly Pathetic"
[Content Note: Rape apologia.]
I've got a new piece at Shareblue about the juvenilization of Donald Trump:
Big Trump, says Gingrich, is "a historic figure talking about historic ideas." Little Trump, on the other hand, is "very sensitive, particularly to anything which attacks his own sense of integrity or his own sense of respectability, and he reacts very intensely, almost uncontrollably, to those kinds of situations."There is more at the link! (Including a very shareable graphic!)
Little Trump has behaved in "frankly pathetic" ways, he said. "I hope he grows out of it."
I hope he grows out of it is something a person says about an 8-year-old, not a 70-year-old man who is running for president of the United States, with three weeks to go until the election.
...There is nothing charming about an adult man who imagines or acts like he is still a boy. Especially not a man who is petitioning for the nation's highest office.
And since the best the Republicans had to offer is a boy, it is a good thing the Democrats nominated a woman.
This is one of those issues where I can't help but observe the stark contrast between how we (as a culture) view Trump and how we view Hillary Clinton. She is always and forever expected to be a grown-up (and so she should be), but even things she did as a child, like being a Goldwater Girl when she wasn't even old enough to vote for him, are treated as the failure of an adult who should have known better.
Meanwhile, Trump is still just a kid with some growing-up to do at age 70.
Daily Dose of Cute
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
Tweet of the Day
"Do I have anything in my teeth?"
— Myles Brown (@mdotbrown) October 18, 2016
"No one is looking at you Barack." pic.twitter.com/AjI2OchgzK
[Image in tweet is a photo of President Barack Obama in a tuxedo and First Lady Michelle Obama in a gold chain mail Versace gown at the State Dinner last night.]
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
P.S.
I don't imagine @FLOTUS wore chain mail to send a message to Donald Trump, but it's a happy coincidence all the same.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 19, 2016
Behold Your Roosting Chickens: Trump Is Not an Outlier of GOP Policy; He Is the Endgame
[Content Note: Bigotry; privilege; fearmongering.]
I've got a new piece at Shareblue, some of the text of which may be familiar to longtime readers, but there's lots of new stuff, too: "Trump has exposed the rot at the core of the Republican Party."
What is one to do when one has no capacity to process fear, no ability to sit with it and live with it, no developed strategies for coping with fear?Head on over the read the rest, because there is a lot more where that came from.
Well, in a lot of cases, one buys a gun. Or many guns. And then looks for an authoritarian who validates both your fear and your hatred, and promises that he is the only one who can protect you.
Donald Trump’s entire campaign has been built around such a promise. He is the savior the Republican Party has always promised, but never delivered. And he expresses as much contempt for the party leadership over that failure as the base feels, reflecting and validating their anger at having been ignored.
He exploits their fears for his own gain at every turn. His ascendancy is firmly rooted in the bigotry and anxiety carefully cultivated by the Republican Party for decades. He is not a betrayer of their values, but their most shameless promoter.
And now the party elites have the temerity to publicly lament that the genie won’t go back in the bottle.
“What happened to my party?” wonder the vanishing moderates of the Republican Party, shaking their heads gravely and publicly wringing their hands, before shuffling off to wash them of any responsibility.
But they are what happened to their party. Their reckless exploitation of the darkest prejudices, the worst of human nature. Their greed. Their careless fearmongering. Their cynical scapegoating. Their endless denials of injustice.
They happened, with their insatiable appetites for more wealth, more power, more influence, more control. Their voracious need to win.
They happened. They and their bumper sticker sloganeering in a complicated world.
Now they shamelessly deflect blame by pretending to by mystified by why their base is rallying around a billionaire with a bumper sticker slogan stitched in gold thread on tacky hats.
The Ownership Party doesn't want to own their own nominee. But they can't be allowed to shirk responsibility that easily. They built the space that he now fills. They own him. The end.
YES
[Content Note: Class warfare.]
Those of you who have been reading me write about politics for awhile will probably recall my having said once or twice or three million times that I loathe how politicians (on both sides of the aisle) disproportionately focus economic policy on the middle class and routinely talk about addressing poverty only insomuch as it's "good for the economy," rather than because it's the decent thing to do, with urgency.
My friends, I give you Tim Kaine:
.@timkaine in Detroit: Fighting poverty is a "growth strategy...but it's also a moral responsibility" https://t.co/eqkvAA3dRa
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 18, 2016
Fighting povery is really a growth strategy. It's a competitiveness strategy. But it's also a moral responsibility. And it's gonna be a defining mission of a Clinton-Kaine administration.That's what I've always wanted to hear. Thanks, Tim Kaine.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
[Content Note: There is some flickery editing in this video.]
Garbage: "Only Happy When It Rains"
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
